Insane Killer Will Be Sent To Mental Hospital

December 12, 1989|By Debbie Salamone Of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — A woman who was found insane and therefore not guilty of murdering her parents will be committed to a mental institution despite contentions from family survivors that she murdered for money.

Seminole Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr. said Monday that he will commit Stephanie Gardner indefinitely to the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services as soon as her attorneys get reports from her psychiatrists. That could come before the end of the year.

The 32-year-old mother of two was charged with murdering Daniel Dinda, 66, and Carolyn Dinda, 60, in June 1988 at their home near Oviedo.

During her trial last month, witnesses testified that Gardner believed satellite microwaves were displacing the souls of her children and that radio transmitters in her teeth were used to track her activities. They also testified that shortly before the killings, Gardner had stopped taking some of her medication to control her mental illness.

A jury found her not guilty of the murder charges by reason of insanity.

Gardner's brother, Joe Dinda, told Eaton on Monday that Gardner stood to inherit at least $100,000 from their parents. He maintains that Gardner knew what she was doing and that the murders occurred the night before Gardner was to move out of the Dinda home and into a trailer her parents had bought for her.

But Eaton told Dinda that he could not change the jury's verdict and that his hands were tied.

Eaton said he also plans to sentence Gardner to 15 years of probation because the jury found her guilty of shooting within a dwelling. In case Gardner is released from the mental hospital within the next 15 years, she will be required to report to a probation officer, Seminole Assistant State Attorney Steve Plotnick said.

Plotnick said he does not expect that Gardner will be released because psychiatrists who testified during the trial agreed that the chances for her recovery are poor. But if psychiatrists ever recommend that Gardner walk free, the matter will come before a judge for a hearing.

Dinda remains dissatisfied. If Gardner is released, he said, ''I do not wish to be standing next to a coffin or in one with someone saying, 'How sad. She must have gone off her medication.'

''My parents believed we exist in this world to do good,'' Dinda said. ''Because of their belief in God, . . . they changed the world with small acts of good. I believe the legal system has failed them.''